Tisha B'Av

Tisha B'Av will occur at sunset
August 2, 2006 until- nightfall August 3, 2006

According to the Mishnah five specific events occurred on the ninth of Av that warrant fasting:

Five misfortunes befell our fathers ... on the ninth of Av

...On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the Temple was destroyed the first and second time, Bethar was captured and the city [Jerusalem] was ploughed up. -Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6

...Should I weep in the fifth month [Av], separating myself, as I have done these so many years? -Zechariah 7:3

In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month ...came Nebuzaradan ... and he burnt the house of the L-RD... -II Kings 25:8-9

In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month... came Nebuzaradan ... and he burnt the house of the L-RD... - Jeremiah 52:12-13

How then are these dates to be reconciled? On the seventh the heathens entered the Temple and ate therein and desecrated it throughout the seventh and eighth and towards dusk of the ninth they set fire to it and it continued to burn the whole of that day. ... How will the Rabbis then [explain the choice of the 9th as the date]? The beginning of any misfortune [when the fire was set] is of greater moment. -Talmud Ta'anit 29a

Tisha B'Av or Tish'ah b'Av (Hebrew: ???? ???, tish‘ah b?-a?) is a major annual fast day in Judaism. Its name denotes the ninth day (Tisha) of the Jewish month of Av, which falls in the high summer. It has been called the "saddest day in Jewish history".

The fast commemorates two of the saddest events in Jewish history -- the destruction of the First Temple (originally built by King Solomon), and the destruction of the Second Temple. Those two events occurred about 556 years apart, but both in the same month, Av, and, as tradition have it, both on the ninth day.

On this day in the year 1312 BCE, the generation of Jews who came out of Egypt under Moses' leadership 16 months earlier were condemned to die in the wilderness (midbar) and the entry into the Land of Israel was delayed for 40 years until the old generation died out.
The traditional 4th and 5th events are the Bar Kokhba's revolt against Rome failed, Bar Kokhba was killed, as was Rabbi Akiva and many other important sages of the Mishnah, and Betar was destroyed and the following the Siege of Jerusalem, the subsequent razing of Jerusalem took place one year later.

A large number of calamities are alleged to have occurred on the ninth of Av:
1. The declaration of the Crusades by Pope Urban II in 1095
2. The burning of the Talmud in 1242
3. In 1290, the signature of the edict by King Edward I expelling the Jews from England
4. The Alhambra decree was put into effect, leading to the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492
5. The First World War started in 1914
6. The first killings at Treblinka took place in 1942
7. The AMIA Bombing (Asociación Mutua Israelita Argentina) by Arab terrorists on July 18, 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 86 and wounded more than 120.

The purpose of the day is not to institute annual commemorations of historical disasters. Rather, they are commemorated on Tisha B'Av. Examples are the destruction of many Jewish communities in the Rhineland during the Crusades. The liturgy often makes mention of specific instances (see below).

Restrictions

As on Yom Kippur, Tisha B'Av is observed as a full day fast that lasts 25 hours (sometimes longer, depending on where one is located), beginning with sunset and ending with nightfall the subsequent day. There are six main prohibitions:
1. Not wearing leather shoes.
2. Abstaining from all food and drink (unless this would be life-threatening)
3. Abstaining from washing or bathing of any kind. Some authorities state that washing solely for the sake of hygiene is acceptable.
4. Abstaining from applying creams or oils. Skin creams, deodorants and makeup are included in this prohibition.
5. Abstaining from sexual relations, hugging, kissing and all other forms of physical affection.
6. Abstaining from studying Torah, though reading Lamentations, Job, some sections of Jeremiah and sections of the Talmud that deal with the laws of mourning is allowed

Although the fast ends at nightfall, eating meat and drinking wine are prohibited until noon of the following day. According to tradition, the Temple burned all night and most of the day of the tenth of Av.

During services in synagogue, and when returning home, from nightfall until mid-day one is required to sit on the floor or on low chairs as during shiv'ah (the week of mourning observed after the death of a first-degree relative). Some even have the custom of sleeping on the floor or other modification to the normal sleeping routine. People must refrain from greeting each other or sending gifts on this day. Old prayer books and Torahs are often buried on this day.

Services

The scroll of Eichah (Lamentations) is read in synagogue during the evening services. In addition, most of the morning is spent reading kinoth ("dirges"), most bewailing the loss of the Temples and the subsequent persecutions, but many others referring to post-exile disasters. These later kinnoth were composed by various poets (often prominent Rabbis) who had either suffered in the events mentioned or relate received reports. Important kinnoth were composed by Elazar ha-Kalir and Rabbi Judah ha-Levi. After the Holocaust, kinnoth were composed by the German-born Rabbi Shimon Schwab (in 1959, at the request of Rabbi Joseph Breuer) and by Rabbi Solomon Halberstam, leader of the Bobov Hasidim (in 1984).

Conservative and Masorti ideas

The law committee of the Masorti Movement (Conservative Judaism in the State of Israel) issued responsa on the question "In our time do we still have to fast for the whole of Tisha b'Av, seeing that our sovereign independence has been regained? May we reduce the outward signs of mourning and permit eating after the Minchah Service?" Two responsa were given:
Rabbi Theodore Friedman wrote that: "There is already an historical precedent in Megillat Ta'anit which stipulated days on which we may not fast because of salvation wrought for Israel. In our time we have been vouchsafed a great salvation in the establishment of the State... It therefore seems to us that this great historical turning point in Israel's history should be celebrated by not completing the fast on 9th Av, but concluding it after the midday Minchah."

Rabbi David Golinkin wrote, concluding "It is forbidden to fast only half the day on Tisha b'Av for several reasons:
1. we have demonstrated that during the period of the Second Temple they did fast on Tisha b'Av...
2. From the Halakic point of view this is not possible. Either we must fast on all four of the fasts [and Tisha b'Av] or on Tisha b'Av alone...
3. From the ideological point of view, we cannot yet say that we have reached the period of "peace". We should revert to the custom of the Ge'onim ... and fast the whole day on Tisha b'Av and declare the other fast days to be voluntary and not compulsory."

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